When Songbirds Fly | Bellamy Blake

Chapter Seventy-Three: Mother of Mine

TW// Mentions of domestic ab*se, death

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'Okay, shoot.'

Looking to Raven and Emori, who both jog alongside me, I frown. 'Uh... things you don't miss about Earth.'

Emori scoffs, still maintaining her few inches of progress ahead of us. 'Oh, that's easy,' she says, 'way too easy. Deserts.'

'You literally grew up in a desert.'

'Doesn't mean I liked it.' Seeing our exchange of amused glances, she let's out a quiet snicker, 'I'm serious! The people are assholes, there's no easy water... don't get me started on the fucking sand. I swear, I still find little bits in my clothes. Raven?'

Our path continues to curve and Raven shrugs. 'Okay. Um, I guess it's nice not to worry about this place killing me. And mud — such a pain in the ass.'

'Ugh, agreed,' I chuckle.

Our trail ends just outside Mess where we are met by Murphy. He grins and holds the door open for us, giving Emori a quick kiss as she passes him.

Bellamy greets me with our own kiss, pulling out a couple of chairs for Raven and I to slump into. His hands find my shoulders and he starts to massage the skin.

Something has happened. He rarely gives me these unexpected massages unless something is wrong.

'What?' I ask warily, my chest still heaving breathlessly.

In response, Monty and Harper set down a few large carboard boxes. The lids are removed to reveal dozens upon dozens of brown, labelled files. Harper's expression is unreadable. 'I found them when I was looking through the storage cupboard in the Council's meeting room.'

We remain still, watching her curiously. Finally, Echo speaks up, 'What are those?'

'Data on the Hundred.'

'I thought all the Ark's files were digital,' Bellamy says.

Raven shakes her head, not tearing her gaze from the boxes for a second. 'Most of it's digital, yeah, but they've backed it all up with paper copies ever since the Virus.'

A few of the others look to me, although I'm not sure why. This "Virus" has only come up once before, and it was not explained then, either.

Harper picks through them until she finds her own, flicking through the various pages. Hers is one of the thinnest, most likely because she wasn't considered a threat for stealing medicine, especially not when all she had was her father. 'They've got everything: birthday, family, friends, childhood injuries and illnesses, previous misdemeanours, our damn grades and attendance records.'

Murphy takes out his own and I see Raven and Monty swap files, her lips pursing as she scans the pages. Bellamy is the next to lean forwards, withdrawing four files. The first is Octavia's, which he tucks under his arm; the second and third he passes to me. The last one is opened, revealing a picture of a girl with blonde hair, blue eyes and a kind face. Clarke.

'Y'know, I forgot how cute she used to look.'

Frowning at Murphy's words, Bellamy glances over to him with raised eyebrows. '"Cute"?'

He scoffs, 'What, I'm not allowed to make observations?'

'He's not wrong,' I murmur quietly, 'she was cute. And you should've seen her when she was a kid, sweetest thing you'll ever see.'

A heavy silence weighs down on us for some time. It still feels like far too soon for any of this but one thing we've learned from our time down on Earth is that there is no such thing as the right time. We will manage. It may seem impossible, but we will figure it out. We'll be okay.